


Brightness Calling

by wispmother



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fallout, M/M, Memory Loss, Violence, friendship makes a shitty reality a little more bearable, i'm bad at tags i'm sorry, secrets secrets are no fun unless they're shared with everyone, specifically fallout 4
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-09-17 21:10:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9345101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wispmother/pseuds/wispmother
Summary: Vernon wakes up in an alley unable to recall where he is from or where he was going. Aided by Jack - an unflinchingly helpful scavenger - along with a settlement inhabited by Minutemen, a punchy bodyguard, an intimidating scientist, a reformed Raider, as well as a suspiciously paranoid trade caravan, all led by an idealist with a few tricks up his sleeve, Vernon learns that sometimes your past defines who you will be, and sometimes it allows you to become who you need to be.





	1. A Critical Chance

**Author's Note:**

> this au is based on the game fallout 4, and may possibly be a little spoiler-y for the main story line and some side quest lines. i'll try to do my best to make the story as inclusive for those who haven't played the game but there will likely be some concepts and bits of world-building things that you might have to reference the wiki for. if you have any questions, feel free to ask. xo-wispy

“Hey!”

Dark. It was dark. There was noise close by and more noise farther away.

“Hey, wake up!”

The noise close by was a voice. The noise farther away was gunfire, maybe.

“Are you okay? Can you open your eyes?”

Vernon’s eyes flew open at the suggestion. Black went to blinding white in half a heartbeat. All of him ached, sore like he’d been beaten with a stick for the last three hours. Maybe he had been. He wasn’t sure. Trying to remember anything past his name was coming up blank right at that moment.

“Hey, hey, you’re with me, very good.”

The blinding white faded into color and blurred edges came into focus through filthy lenses and Vernon realized there was a man hovering over him, a frown plastered on his handsome face. He seemed to give Vernon a full once over before reaching out to touch his shoulder. He spoke again, his voice fitted with an accent Vernon couldn’t place.

“Can you stand up? We need to get out of here. I can’t fight all of those Raiders off alone. I have a safe place we can go.”

Vernon wanted to answer, but his throat felt tight, like it was full of dust. Raiders. They were bad news. Sure this guy could be bad news too, but he didn’t seem interested in tangling with Raiders so maybe he would be less bad. Vernon’s voice still didn’t want to work, so instead he simply nodded, pushing himself up and off the ground, his legs shaking hard as he forced himself to support his weight. The handsome man held a hand out, offering it for support, but Vernon ignored it, instead finding the wall to lean on. Under his hand was brick, rough and unforgiving. He looked up and saw a sliver of sky between the two buildings that sheltered him and the strangely-accented man.

The Commonwealth. He was in the Commonwealth. His name was Vernon Shaw. He used to live in a settlement…. It was north of the Commonwealth. Maybe. He didn’t want to run into Raiders. He wasn’t sure if he could actually trust the handsome stranger.

“Friend I know you’re in a bad spot but we need to go,” the stranger seemed antsy, and the gunfire sounded much closer than it had been before. “Come on, it’s not far. We’ll hide out and wait for ‘em to get bored.”

Now Vernon took the hand that was offered, letting the stranger – who was a little shorter than him, dressed in worn jeans and a plaid button down under a few pieces of what looked like well-worn leather armor strapped to his left shoulder and chest - pull him out of the alley and down another side street that led to the edge of a river. They turned and followed it for a few minutes before the stranger ducked down another alley, this one leading to a haphazard wall made of wood scraps and tires. Vernon could smell something cooking, and his stomach lurched. He stopped short, wrenching his hand from the man’s grip. His head throbbed as he became suddenly, painfully aware that he had let a stranger lead him to a strange place. His body still ached, and his head was swimming. The stranger stopped, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he stood in front of him.

“You’ll be alright; we’re just going to lay low here for a little bit.”

Vernon coughed, phlegm working out of his lungs and throat, freeing his voice. He took half a step back from the stranger, trying to find his words as he spit out a mouthful of foul muck.

“Where am I?”

“The Commonwealth. Just a bit north of Diamond City. They must have hit you harder than-“

“Where did you take me?”

“A Minuteman outpost called Hangman’s Alley.”

“Jack, that you?” A different voice called from behind the junk wall and the stranger turned towards the source of it, cupping a hand to throw his voice back over the wall.

“Yeah, it’s me. I’ve got a guest. You got a spot for us to crash? My new friend’s not running at 100 percent quite yet.”

“Yeah, yeah we can find space for you. Get in here, there might be a wave coming.”

It didn’t take any more persuasion than that for Jack to motion for Vernon to follow him as he approached the wall, pushing a section of it to reveal it’s true nature as a gate. Vernon followed behind Jack, his fear of the man and where he’d been led assuaged by the mentioning of the Minutemen. He’d heard of them. They were the good guys. They were safe.

Inside the gate, a few small, tumbledown shacks took up most of the alley, with a few of them climbing upwards, built onto pre-war structures in precarious fashion. There was a tense quiet in the alley that Vernon guessed had to do with the Raiders that were out in the streets beyond the wall, and he was suddenly more profoundly glad to have something between him and them.

Jack had greeted a person carrying a laser musket, their voice matching the one they’d heard from the other side of the wall. After a brief exchange in hushed tones, the musket-wielder motioned the duo to follow them towards a set of rickety stairs, leading the two men up to a makeshift shelter overlooking the alley. It was barely four walls and a roof, but it seemed secure enough and there were two mattresses sidled up against opposite walls with a low table between them. A few half-used candles were melted onto the wood surface, waiting to be lit again. The musket-wielder left them and Jack seemed to visibly relax as he dropped the bag he had had slung across his shoulders on the floor of the shelter.

“Why don’t you lay down, get some rest? You’re still a bit out of it, I’d bet. Are you hungry?”

Vernon shook his head, clamping his mouth shut at the thought of food. The other man seemed to catch on to this and nodded, suggesting water instead. This idea agreed with Vernon more and he nodded, lowering himself to one of the mattresses, convincing himself to relax. Jack disappeared, telling Vernon he’d be back with water in a little bit. Once alone, Vernon let out a heavy sigh, closing his eyes against the still present throbbing in his head.

His name was Vernon Shaw. He used to live in the north… somewhere. He might have been attacked by Raiders (probably). A man named Jack might have saved him (more than likely).  He had been out cold in a dead end alley but now he was here, in a different alley, that served as a Minuteman outpost in the Commonwealth.  He was here now but he wasn’t quite sure how or why, or where he had been trying to go before all of this. It would bother him later that he couldn’t account for these things, he knew that much was true, but for now he was content with letting it go and sinking lower on the mattress, welcoming the sleep that found him almost immediately.

 

When Vernon woke up, it was dark. He blinked once, twice and realized someone had taken his glasses off and set them on the low table next to him. The candles were now lit, casting a flickering glow over the small space. Also on the table was a bottle labeled ‘clean water’ in messy, blockish letters. The man put his glasses on, noting that they’d been cleaned off, and immediately realized he was alone in the shelter. Idly wondering where Jack was, he took the water and drank greedily, deciding not to worry about what the outpost’s fresh water supply and rationing was like. He polished off the bottle in record time, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He took inventory of himself; relieved to find his head no longer throbbed and his stomach seemed to have called it quits on doing flips. He was still thirsty and maybe even a little hungry, but all things considered…

“Are you feeling better?” Jack’s voice entered the shelter gently, clearly trying to not startle the other man. Vernon looked to the door and saw Jack standing there, another two bottles of water cradled in his hands. He held one out to Vernon, still waiting for a response.

“Yeah, a lot.” The bespectacled man said, taking the water. He opened it and took a deep drink, finally feeling like he wasn’t going to die of thirst. “I’m uh…. I- Thank you. For helping me. I’m sorry if I came off ungrateful earlier, when I was asking where we were. I was a little… confused.”

Jack laughed and moved from the doorway to sit on the mattress on the other side of the shelter.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to hold it against you. I’m not sure what the Raiders did to you, but you were pretty out of it. You slept for a long time.”

“How long?”

“Well we got here around midday yesterday, and it’s getting pretty close to dawn now…”

“Shit. I’m sorry if I held you up… you didn’t have to wait for me.”

“Nah, I didn’t want to abandon you here, especially if you needed help getting to where you were going in the first place.”

Vernon opened his mouth to answer but stopped short, suddenly realizing that he couldn’t recall where he had been going before Jack found him. And just as before, he couldn’t exactly say where he’d come from. He rubbed at the back of his neck, panic knotting in his gut. Where had he been living? He had had a family, but… who? What did he do for a living? When did he come this far south?  How had he ended up in that alley? Why couldn’t he remember…anything?

“I don’t… I don’t know where I was going.”

“D’you know where you came from?”

“North? A settlement north of here, of the Commonwealth… I think. I’m not entirely sure of that either.”

“Shit, you really must have gotten a good whack on the head if you can’t remember things like that.” Jack’s said, leaning against the shack wall. “If you want, you can tag along with me. The settlement I live at always has extra work that needs doing, and there’s plenty of food and water to go around. At least until you can remember where you were heading off to.”

“That’s a really generous offer, but I can’t impose. I’ll… I’m sure I can find my around here. You said Diamond City isn’t too far, I’m sure-“

“No, I insist.” Jack interrupted, leaning forward. “I wouldn’t feel good about leaving you in Diamond City alone, and I can’t ask the outpost here to take you on. Come with me, stay as long as you need…. When you remember where you were going to or where you were coming from, I’ll help you get there. I promise. The Marina’s just as safe as Diamond City.”

Vernon fiddled with the half-full bottle in his hands. Jack was right – he couldn’t impose on the outpost, especially since he wasn’t part of the Minutemen, and the thought of being alone in Diamond City scared him more than he wanted to admit. In his heart Vernon wanted to stay with Jack. The man had proven to be nothing but friendly; a safe spot in what was otherwise a remarkably unsafe world. The promise of a place to belong - however briefly - was comforting too, despite the gnawing anxiety that his inability to remember crucial aspects of his past was contributing to. Besides, he had no caps, no weapons, and a haphazard knowledge of the Commonwealth in general. Striking out on his own would, in all likelihood, result in his death within a matter of days. His odds of survival were better, by far, if he stayed with Jack.

“If you’re sure there’s room for me, I’ll go with you. To the…?”

“The Marina. It’s a little collection of buildings on the river a few hours walk to the southwest of here. You think you can make the walk sooner rather than later?”

Vernon nodded and stood up slowly, pleased to find his legs weren’t shaking nearly as badly as they had been yesterday. The water had done wonders for his strength, clearly.

“I’m Jack Walsh, by the way,” the man said, standing to offer his hand to Vernon. Vernon took it, surprised by the strength in Jack’s grip.

“Vernon Shaw. Thanks for…everything.”

“Think nothing of it, Vernon. Helping people’s about the only thing I’m good at. Can’t let myself get rusty, can i?” Jack winked at Vernon and a grin crept onto the taller man’s face, which the shorter man returned before turning to bound down the stairs into the alley. Vernon followed behind at a slower pace. Whatever force was still at work in the Wasteland – be it a god or karma or sheer dumb luck or… whatever - Vernon was suddenly, profoundly, thankful that it had led him to Jack.


	2. Regrouped, Reloaded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack takes Vernon back to The Marina and introduces him to life there. Vernon is still playing 'fill in the blanks'.

The two men left the safety of the outpost under the cover of pre-dawn darkness. Jack had advised Vernon to stay close and as quiet as possible as they moved through the maze of crumbling buildings, but not until after apologizing that he hadn’t managed to come up with a gun for him during their layover. It was slow going since any off sound or strange shadow that passed ahead of them caused Jack to pause, holding out a hand to stop Vernon. They’d stay low, waiting for the danger – real or imagined – to pass, before starting on again, moving slowly.

Vernon took the opportunity to study the environment, trying to find anything familiar that might help to jar his memory into working again. The peeling paint and crumbling masonry didn’t do anything for him, however, only made him more keenly aware – in subtle, distressing ways - that he was utterly lost, even with Jack leading the way.

As pinks and oranges began to invade the sky, the duo passed the monstrous green walls and heavily guarded entrance to Diamond City, following a cracked street south towards the edge of the city. When they crossed a bridge, Jack slowed to a standstill, looking back at the city behind them before lazily stretching his arms over his head.

“The hard part is behind us, Vernon.” He said, sounding quite pleased with himself. “We just have to follow this road until we hit The Marina, maybe another two hour’s walk or so.”

“How do you not get lost in a place like that?” Vernon asked, jerking his head to indicate the sprawling city they’d just left. Jack shrugged and started off again, the taller man following dutifully.

“I’ve been going through those streets my entire life. My folks were traders; knew a dozen routes to get to Diamond City from every possible entry point. Even when raiders or mutants tried to stop supplies, we were always able to get things through.”

“Where are your parents now?” Vernon asked, nearly tripping over a chunk of asphalt.

“They retired to Diamond City, actually. They own a place in the upper stands to boot, figured they’d be safest there.”

“Did you not want to be a Trader, then?”

“It wasn’t a life for me, so I found something else to do. Remember this place.” Jack motioned to a dilapidated house on the left side of the road. Its tall posts, once meant to support part of the roof, were broken nearly in half, leaving the house with a strange, almost doubled over look. “It’s the first landmark to follow to get home, in case you wander off and get lost.”

“Right, the house that looks like it could fall over any moment is landmark one.”

“Hey, to be fair it’s looked like that for years. If it was gonna fall, it would’ve done it by now. Sometimes pre-war things were built to last.”

Vernon grinned and shook his head, picking up his feet to avoid tripping over some roots that had pushed through the cracked pavement. Jack talked ahead of him, pointing off in different directions, telling him of things just out of sight to watch for, or to avoid. Every so often he’d point out another landmark – an ancient blue car that marked where the overgrown road should be, a train engine still resting on an overpass - that would guide him back to The Marina, should he need the help.

“As much as I appreciate the landmarks,” Vernon said, taking longer strides to keep pace with Jack. “I don’t think I’m gonna go too far from the settlement. I mean, I just don’t think it’d be a good idea, given my luck.”

“Even still, you’re free to come and go. What if one day you get adventurous?” Jack grinned, coming to a stop at the crest of a gentle hill. “And here we are! Home sweet home.”

Ahead of them, down the gentle slope of the hill, was a large and open space; chunks of pavement giving away it’s past life as a parking lot. At the far end of the open lot, butted up against a steep hill, was a sprawling assortment of plants springing up from neatly tilled plots and corralled by wire fencing. From where they stood, the sun had begun to illuminate two pre-war buildings to the right of the clearing, both of which were clearly patched here and there where the holes in their brickwork had become too large. Between the buildings was a fence similar to the one in Hangman’s Alley – built of wood scraps and tires – and the faint sound of motors running gave a permanent droning hum as the background to all other sounds. Jack started down the slope, turning off the ruined road towards the gate, Vernon following close.

“We lock the place down at night,” Jack explained, reaching between the two doors of the gate to shimmy forward an ancient lock on a thick chain. “Since we’re a bit farther out than most settlements, it’s a precaution we take. I’ll get you a copy of the key as soon as I can.” He produced his own key from inside his shirt and unlocked it, letting the chain that held the doors together fall away. He pushed one side of the gate in, motioning grandly for Vernon to enter. The taller man smiled nervously, and stepped inside while Jack re-locked the gate behind them.

“Well, well Jack. I thought you were going for copper and crystal, but you’ve brought us a new friend instead.”

A tall, thin man had appeared at a doorway on the building to their left, his wildly curled hair held back lazily, the button-down shirt he wore hung half-open and loose on his frame. He had a teasing smile but friendly eyes, and instantly Vernon felt comfortable around him. Jack rubbed the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly at the thin man.

“Well, I mean, Barry’s gonna get his copper and crystal; I managed to pick some up. But this guy was in a bit of a tight spot and I thought we could help him out, seeing as that’s what we do…”

“Oh you’re absolutely right, but what kind of help-“

Jack flashed a look to the curly-haired man that caused him to stop talking almost instantly. Vernon looked between them but the thin man had already moved on and was smiling at him, extending a hand out in greeting.

“I’m Dan Avidan, Lieutenant Colonel of the Minutemen…and I’m sort of like the mayor of the settlement… but, uh, more like a babysitter some days. At any rate, we’re glad to have you. Where are you from?”

“From?” Vernon asked, taken off guard by the question. He blinked once or twice before muttering something about north, and then changing the subject before the man could figure out he had no goddamn clue where he’d come from. “So you guys are Minutemen? I’m sure you guys are busy and I don’t know how useful I can be but-“

“Don’t think anything of it,” Dan interrupted, folding his arms over his chest. “We’re here to help. But let me backtrack a bit- you said you came from the north? How far, which settlement?”

“I, uh… to be honest… I don’t know.”  Vernon could feel his skin crawling under Dan’s gaze.

Now it was Jack’s turn to interrupt. “Vernon here got whacked on the noggin by a raider, can’t remember much past his name and a few shaky details. I couldn’t leave him at Hangman’s and I wasn’t about to let him wander Diamond City alone.”

“No, you made the right choice. Find him a place to rest his head, show him around and find him something to do. I’ll need to talk with you later, Jack. Vernon, I’ll see you around. If you need anything, you just ask.”

The bespectacled man nodded as Dan turned and headed back into the building he’d appeared from, leaving him and Jack alone outside.

“You never told me you were a Minuteman too,” Vernon said, looking towards Jack.

“I didn’t mention it? Sorry ‘bout that. I mean, I guess I’m more of an associate than an actual member? Either way, yeah, I’m grouped in with ‘em.  The General asked me to station out here, even. Follow me; I think I can make space for you at my place.”

Jack continued on past the two buildings, turning to cross a makeshift bridge that let out onto one of the three piers of the Marina. Passing through what might have been an old shed, the duo emerged into a two story building, which Jack introduced as his home.

“My room’s to the left there,” he motioned, indicating a closed door off of the main room where they stood. A table and a few mostly-whole chairs took up the majority of the space, while a stove that had seen better days leaned against the right hand wall. “Mostly it’s storage upstairs but I know there’s an extra bed under some of the boxes that’s got your name on it.”

Jack bounded up the stairs, disappearing from view. Vernon could hear him moving boxes; the solid thud of metal and wood meeting the floor echoing slightly through the small building. Vernon trudged up the stairs, finding that the space there was indeed full of boxes, shored up to the metal railing that separated the loft area from a fall to the main level.

“Here, help me move this one.” Jack grunted, jerking his head at the box he was half holding. Between the two of them, they managed to move it to the floor and slide it to the foot of the bed it had been resting on.

“What the hell is in this thing?” Vernon asked, clicking open the locks. Inside was a multitude of guns, most in states of startling disrepair. “Was this your stash or something?”

“Nah, it’s probably reserve stuff The Castle sent us. Like I said, this was just a storage space. Something in there might be worth using though. Maybe tonight we can look through it and find you a gun worth carrying. Worse comes to worse Barry can fix up whichever one is least awful for ya… he owes me a favor or two.”

“Who’s Barry?” Vernon asked distractedly, examining a pipe pistol whose wood had begun to rot.

“Ah he’s something like an engineer. Real good with electricity and tinkering and all that… he’s working on getting the place ready for the big gun we’re supposed to get installed someday.”

“Big gun?”

“Yeah, awhile back the General and their second found the schematics for an artillery gun and now they want to have one installed at every outpost. We’re still working on getting the place ready to house one. It’s been… a trial.”

“Why’s that?” Vernon asked, setting aside yet another rotten pipe pistol. Jack shrugged and stepped forward, flipping the mattress on the bed they’d uncovered over.

“Some of the materials are harder to come by lately. Just more work on my part, honestly. Speaking of work, let me show you around the place and set you up with Ross. He mentioned needing some help the other day.”

Vernon closed the crate and followed Jack back down the stairs and out of the shed. Along the way, Jack took care to point out where things were, and the protocols for the more important locations, like the water purifier and the clinic and the bar.

“Every other building out here is sleeping quarters or houses so steer clear of ‘em unless you’re invited in. Dan and his live-in bodyguard Arin live up there,” Jack pointed to the upper level of the building Dan had emerged from earlier in the morning. “And it’s kind of like Dan’s office too so you can head up if you need to talk to him. And don’t mind Arin so much. He’s surly and punchy but he means well.”

“Right. I’ll keep that in mind.” Vernon sighed, suddenly aware that there were many more bodies moving around the settlement than when he’d arrived, lending much more life to the place. He found it comforting. It didn’t feel empty; it even felt much safer, in all actuality.

“For now you’ll work in the fields with Ross and some of the others,” Jack continued, passing through the now wide-open gate. In the fields to the right, a handful of people were crouched among the plants, pulling weeds and dispensing water from makeshift watering cans. “A word of warning for Ross… he’s rough around the edges. Like…. Very rough.  Former raider boss rough. But he means well, and if you just treat him like you’d want to be treated, he’ll be your best friend.”

“You let a raider into the Minutemen?” Vernon stopped short, staring incredulously at Jack. The accented man stopped in turn and shrugged, looking back sympathetically at Vernon.

“He joined up before my time. He’s a good one to have on your side, I can tell you that. He takes his job of keeping the farmers safe while they work very seriously.”

Vernon frowned at Jack but continued to follow when the other man kept on. If Jack and the others trusted him, then there was no reason for Vernon not to. Vernon reminded himself to relax, forcing himself to unclench his fists and let the tension in his jaw go.

“Hey, Ross!” Jack called, hailing a man who was sitting on a rock a few yards up a hill overlooking the fields. The man lifted a hand in response, sliding off the rock and coming down to meet them at the edge of one of the wire fences.

“You bring me a new plaything, Walsh?” Ross said, leering at Vernon as the two men approached. Jack smiled placidly and shook his head. Vernon felt his gut knot up.

“Hardly. This is a guest –his name’s Vernon - and he wants to help out.  I thought you could always use another hand trying to keep all this under control.”

“Yeah, I supposed I could. Can you tell the difference between a weed and the shit that’s worth keeping?” Ross leaned just enough to look around Jack at Vernon. Vernon could only nod, suddenly unable to find his voice. Ross looked at him for a long moment before turning his attention back to Jack. “Alright, I’ll take care of Vern here. You gonna be around tonight?”

“Hard to say, Dan needs to talk to me so I might be out again. But who knows these days?” Jack said, quietly and just for Ross. The ex-raider nodded readjusted the gun slung over his shoulder.

“Hope you can stick around for a day or two. From the sounds of it Holly and her crew had a big haul that went well so there might be cause to celebrate soon.”

“Oh I hope I’m around for that too. Take it easy, mate. Vernon, I’ll talk with you later.”

Vernon and Ross watched Jack stride back across the clearing before disappearing around the corner of the building.

“Alright, really, just pick a row and go to town. And pay attention to what you’re pulling up. We’re having a hell of a time pulling the radiation out of the ground so some of the shit isn’t growing like we want.” Ross glanced at Vernon, who was staring at the rows of mutfruit and tatos and corn that were trying desperately to grow past knee high. Vernon nodded and set to work, grateful when he realized Ross had already abandoned him for his guard position without much more small talk. He hadn’t been excited, per se, about field work but now that he was there and could see and smell the things trying to grow despite all the odds against then, he felt calm. This felt familiar. Kneeling in the dirt, he ran a finger along a brittle leaf on what he thought at first was a tato plant. Something itched at the back of his mind, and he wondered if he hadn’t been a farmer before, back home – wherever that was.

Idly he began pulling at weeds and tufts of grass that didn’t belong, following suit of the others who would periodically get up to draw up water from the nearby pump to apply to particularly bad patches. Ross didn’t bother the workers, his gaze constantly fixed on the horizon around them, but one by one they came over and introduced themselves, chatting while they pulled at grass and dead-headed bad fruits and stunted flowers. He told them he had been a farmer (it didn’t feel like a lie and somehow that mattered to Vernon) in a settlement far to the north and luckily it seemed the other settlers weren’t the curious type.

Before long he was left to his own work again, and whatever worry had weaseled its way into him was being leeched out by the work. The plants and the work felt familiar to him and that was comforting in its own ways but he was still all too aware that he had no way to know if what he was telling the others was truly a story or if there was some truth to it. Instead of dwelling on it, Vernon let himself drown in the task at hand, forgetting the people around him and the sun beating down from above and black hole in his memory where his past should have been.


	3. Dust & Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vernon is finally settling in, but an outing with Jack might show him he has a long way to go.

Days turned into weeks and faster than he thought he would, Vernon made a niche for himself in the community of The Marina. It helped that Jack acted as a crutch when he could, always remembering to include the man, to invite him to sit with the group in the makeshift bar they’d set up, getting the others to remember his name and sooner rather than later Vernon didn’t feel so much like an outsider. This comfort bled into every aspect of his life and there were days when he never thought about the holes in his memory, when he could forget what he’d forgotten and it only caught up to him when it was the middle of the night and he could hear far off gunfire and sleep was even further away.

Aside from the occasional sleepless night, Vernon was…happy. The people in the settlement weren’t unkind, Jack was the closest thing to a friend he could ever remember having, and he had something to put his mind to. Working in the fields suited him; the plants and their tendencies were consistent and familiar and it become easier every day to pull up information that, somehow, he knew. The most satisfying revelation was when he realized a plant that had been pointed out to him as a tato nearly two months ago was actually a rather irradiated and mutated silt bean plant and this discovery had sparked a chain reaction of ideas that brought him to Jack one night after dinner.

The scavenger was sitting at a watch fire outside the perimeter wall with Ross and a caravan leader named Holly who seemed too nervous to be any good on the road. Holly’s guard detail, two men named Matt and Ryan and an austere looking woman named Suzy hovered nearby, watching the dark hills that surrounded them. Ross noticed Vernon’s approach first, and motioned his head to Jack, who turned to look at the man.

“Vernon, hey, how are you holding up? Take a seat. What brings you out to Caravan guard duty tonight?”

“I…I wanted to ask you for a favor. I mean, I know I owe you for a lot of favors already but-“

“Nah, you don’t Vern. What d’you need?”

“Well, I had an idea. The crops are having a hard time with the soil being so irradiated, as you know, and I guess…I mean, I think I remember a way to help them out? I just need battery acid and I know you mentioned you were heading out tomorrow to look for things so I was hoping you could add that to the list? If it’s too much, I understand but if I can get my hands on some, we could increase yields by a fair amount and-“

“Why don’t you come with me?” Jack interrupted, looking up at the bespectacled man. Vernon stammered for a moment before crouching down next to Jack, talking in a hushed, worried tone.

“Are you sure you’d want me with? I mean, I’m not a good shot and I don’t even know what exactly I’d be looking for and what if I slow you down or-“

“It’ll be fine. Come scavenging with me tomorrow. We’ll find your battery acid and see what else we can come up with. You’ll be fine. Go get some sleep, we’re heading out bright and early.”

 

It was still dark out when Jack gently nudged Vernon awake, handing him a cup of stew leftover from last night’s dinner as breakfast.

“Get ready to go, and meet me by the gate in fifteen minutes. Don’t forget your gun.”

Vernon nodded and rubbed at his eyes with one hand, precariously holding the cup of stew in the other. Before he could say anything in response, Jack was gone. Slowly, Vernon got dressed and began to gather the things he thought he’d need for the day as he drank down the lukewarm stew. He smiled at the thought of Jack warming it up in the ashes of last night’s cooking fire, the gesture not lost on him. He didn’t have much to bring outside of a rucksack he’d gotten from a caravan guard who was happy to trade for half a day’s ration of clean water and a cigarette Vernon had been given as a “Welcome to the Settlement” gift from Ross. Most importantly, he grabbed the gun that he’d managed to salvage from the junk Jack had stashed in crates. Of course Jack had called in a favor with Barry to help him give the piece a little more power, but for the most part Vernon had worked on it himself, and it was a point of pride for him that he’d been able to do at least that much for himself.

Leaving the empty stew cup on the table to be dealt with when they returned, Vernon headed towards the gate, where Jack was waiting, already working on opening the lock. The eastern sky was turning a hazy grey and fog had begun to drop.

“Hey, you made it. We should hurry. I don’t want to be travelling in this fog if I can help it.”

“Me either,” Vernon mumbled, looking back at the settlement. Apart of the guards perched at their stations above them, no one else seemed to be awake. He knew Dan and Arin would be awake soon, and the Caravan should be up soon after. There was a gentle clicking sound and then the creak of the opening gate. Wordlessly Vernon followed Jack out and then waited for him to relock it, securing the settlement again.

“We’re heading northeast. There’s a hardware place up that way that Ross and I cleared out a few days ago. I want to get in and see what we can find before more raiders show up and decide to call it home.”

“What are you after this time?” Vernon asked, following after the Scavenger as he took off at a slow jog.

“The same stuff Barry’s always after: copper and crystal. I’m also hoping we can find some ceramic and maybe a few bags of concrete mix, but that’s getting greedy. Plus we need to find your battery acid.”

“How do you know where to find what you’re looking for?” Vernon asked, focusing on trying to keep up. Jack’s pace was almost outside his ability. Thankfully, the man slowed to a walk, looking back at Vernon.

“Practice, trial and error. I’ve been looking for things for a long time. Eventually you just start…knowing where to find the things you’re after. Part of it’s luck. Well, a lot of it, actually.”

They walked for an hour or so, alternating between jogging and walking, slowing to a halt when Jack didn’t trust a noise or a shadow in the fog. Before long, they were back at the edge of the big city, and a building with the large words “Hardware Town” painted on the side appeared out of the white haze.

“Here it is. We’re going in through the loading dock, since there were some things back there that’ll have what I need, but we might have to go in deeper for the other things.” Jack hopped off a small retaining wall into the well of the receiving bay, pressing a button on the wall to raise the metal door and allow them access to the building. It was a noisy operation, and Vernon wondered if it would attract anything nearby to their position, but Jack didn’t seem worried about it. Instead, the Scavenger walked in, moving purposefully towards some racking on the far side of the large room where rows of ancient appliances were sitting. One by one he pulled them off of the shelf and opened up a panel in the back, claiming the prizes from inside and carefully stashing them in his own bag.

“Did you need me to help with this?” Vernon asked, watching over the other man’s shoulder to see what exactly he was pulling out. Jack shook his head, not looking away from the task at hand.

“Nah, I can get through these pretty quick. Why don’t you head into the sales area and see if there are batteries around? I’ll be there in a little bit.”

As much as Vernon didn’t want to split up from Jack, he nodded and made his way to the back of the loading bay, finding a door that he imagined lead into the store itself. Inside, it was dark and quiet, save for the sound of settling and creaking wood. He passed two bathrooms and what he guessed had been a break room before he exited into the sales floor. Shelves were strewn everywhere, pushed over and arranged into a primitive maze; a sign of the former tenants. Vernon shivered at the thought of Jack and Ross clearing the place out. For half a moment he wondered where they’d put the bodies, but in the next moment he decided he didn’t care to know.

 For the most part, any product that might have lived on the shelves was gone, either previously scavenged or lost to some other means of destruction. Along the walls, however, were permanent shelves with piles of junk haphazardly arranged on them, and it didn’t take long for Vernon to find a good number of batteries, throwing all of them into his rucksack before moving down the wall to another pile, and another, eager to sort through all of it. He was so wrapped up in what he was doing; he almost didn’t hear a door swing open and then close, and didn’t hear the voices coming closer and closer to his position.

“It looks like they left,” a low voice growled from a few rows away. Vernon jumped, spilling the pile he’d been working on.

“What was that?” a second, more feminine voice said, followed by the sound of a gun being cocked.

Panic welled in Vernon’s chest and he moved as quickly as he could back towards the loading dock. He could hear the voices following behind him, getting closer. He ducked into the break room, pressing himself into the corner near the door. Seconds later, heavy footfalls passed the door, coming to a stop nearby.

“Looks like the rumor’s true,” the low voice said. “They either got run out or killed…” There was the sound of empty shells clattering across the floor, as if they’d been kicked at. “I’m guessing some scavvers got ballsy and came in guns blazing.”

“Shit, but I’m thinking the scavvers are still here.” The feminine voice said, her footsteps coming back towards the break room door. “Hidin’ somewhere around here…”

Vernon tensed as the door next to him was pushed open and the muzzle of a gun began to appear, one of the raiders coming into his hiding place. His hands were shaking as he lifted his own gun, trying to keep it steady enough to get at least a halfway decent shot before he got a bullet between the eyes, hopeful that the noise would at least warn Jack so he could get away…

But before they came into view, a loud crashing sound came from the direction of the loading bay, drawing the attention of the raiders away and towards it, giving Vernon half a moment to scramble from his hiding spot and quietly follow after them, moving quickly back into the large open room. He watched the two raider move behind some racking, but he didn’t hear anything more. He waited for another moment, wondering if Jack had made a run for it, but then he heard his name, hiss-whispered from above.

“Vernon!”

The bespectacled man looked up and saw Jack, perched high on the top shelf of some racking. He motioned towards a conspicuous pile of boxes, gesturing for him to join him up top. Not needing to be told twice, Vernon scrambled up the pile and joined the Scavenger. From their position, they watched the two raiders, a thickly built man and a tall, muscled woman move cautiously around the racking, looking for the source of the noise they’d heard.

“You saved my hide again,” Vernon muttered, watching the two figures below them examine where Jack had been working. “One of ‘em was about to find my hiding spot.”

“Yeah, I was about to walk right into them before I heard them talking in the hall. It was lucky that there was a dryer nearby for me to push over, otherwise I would have just had to start shooting.”

“Aren’t we gonna shoot them anyway?” Vernon whispered back, adjusting his grip on his gun. Jack watched the duo a moment more before shrugging and nodding, as if giving in to the idea.

“Two less raiders to deal with later, I suppose. Which one do you want?”

“Whichever one is easier… to hit… maybe the… beefy one?” Vernon took aim, trying to decide if he had it in him to actually pull the trigger on the man. With him in his sights, it suddenly seemed a lot more difficult to go through with it. “Or maybe we could run for it? We don’t have to kill them…”

Jack smiled before moving his gun aside and digging a grenade out of a pouch at his side.

“Cover your mouth and nose when I throw this, it’ll cover us while we make a run for it. Here, go back down and get ready.”

The Scavenger waited until Vernon was at the base of the pile of boxes before moving halfway down himself, counting down on his hand before pulling the pin on the grenade and lobbing it towards the raiders. With a bang and a few choice curses, a dense cloud of smoke filled the space, and Jack motioned Vernon to follow, a bandana pulled up over his face. The two men sprinted from the building, ducking wildly when a stray bullet whizzed past them. Neither of them stopped running until they crested the hill at the Marina. Jack slowed to a stop and fell to the dirt, laughing and trying to catch his breath. Vernon nearly tumbled down the hill, barely stopping himself from barreling into Jack.

“Well, how’s that for a first go at scavenging?” Jack laughed, sitting up. Vernon looked at him like he was crazy, but couldn’t help but return his laugh. They weren’t dead. They got what they’d came for. They could laugh about it.

“I think I’m gonna pass on future endeavors, Jack.”

“Don’t be like that,” the man said, standing up. “You just need Ross to give you some shooting lessons and before long you and I will be the best scavengers this side of Diamond City.”

“You two okay?” a voice called from near the gate. The Caravan leader named Holly was watching them from behind her Brahmin while Matt finished tying some of their product down.

“We’re fine, Holly. Just fine. Might want to be careful if you’re heading up past Hardware Town, there might be some action there.”

The woman frowned nervously at him and then glanced at her guards.

“We do have to pass that way, we have a package to pick up not far from there.”

It was hard to miss the worry in her voice, but Jack stood up and walked over to her, Vernon following close behind.

“It won’t be many of ‘em, if you see ‘em at all. Stick with the Brahmin and let your hired guns do the hard stuff. You’ll be fine.”

Jack’s words seemed to calm her a little, and she thanked the man before bidding them goodbye, leading her pack animal away from The Marina.

“How does someone like her end up a Caravan leader? She always seems so…”

“Terrified? She’s a tough one, that Holly. She’d surprise you. Anyway, let’s head in and let Dan know we did good, and maybe you can get started on your plan to fix the dirt in the garden.”

Vernon nodded but paused a moment, watching Holly, Matt, Ryan, and Suzy disappearing over the hill and into the last wisps of fog, the lowing of her Brahmin fading away as they marched towards their destination.  



End file.
